Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether and for what purposes he plans to provide additional funding for (a) Colchester Borough Council, (b) Braintree District Council and (c) the North East Garden Communities Ltd in respect of garden community proposals; and if he will make a statement.

The Government’s Garden Towns and Villages programme provides capacity funding to local authorities leading garden community projects. This helps to fund dedicated staff teams and key studies and assessments to underpin delivery of garden settlements. Funding is allocated on the basis of a competitive bidding process that is open to all local authorities with projects that have previously been selected to be part of the Garden Towns and Villages programme.